Fighting Hunger and Powerlessness in Libertad, Misamis Oriental

By:  Elmer V. Sayre, Ph.D.

Libertad is a town in the western portion of the province of Misamis Oriental with a population of about 30,000.  It is located about 40 kilometers away from Cagayan de Oro City.  Ninety percent of the inhabitants are farmers and most of them are small and marginal.  A farmer is considered small and marginal when he tills less than 2 hectares of land.    This sector is very vulnerable to disadvantageous economic policies and poverty has tied them to a vicious cycle of hunger, poor health, malnutrition and general malice.  They are part of the “Mindanao Poor” and the government is trying all her might to improve their situation.  The central concern is how to rapidly improve the living conditions of these disadvantaged farming families? The answer that the Local Empowerment Foundation (LEF) based in the town of Libertad developed is by the provision of draft animals on a low-interest loan scheme coupled with the promotion of sustainable farming practices and social mobilization.

A farmer without draft animal is considered a cripple because he must resort to costly and inefficient means to cultivate his farm.  The draft animal proved tremendously to be the most useful, versatile and economical asset the farmer possess as it provided direct and multiple economic benefits in the form of:  animal labor for hire, increment in weight and market value of the animal, offspring (if female), aid in hauling farm produce, even carrying the local beauty during fiestas.

The project negates the idea that the rural poor are not bankable and rapidly cut the cycle of poverty, powerlessness and low productivity of small farmers.  This project is innovative given that most attempts to increase the well-being of rural farming families falls short of expectations either because it did not meet squarely felt needs, it is psychologically inaccessible or it instead benefited the better off in the community.

a)  Situation before the initiative began

The farmers without draft animals suffer from low farm productivity and unable to efficiently develop their farms since they will be using hand tools or have to rent other animals. Their incomes are low and they have poor living conditions.   They have no access to credit except the middlemen that charges interest rates of up to 250% per year!  Banks are psychologically distant to them given their inferiority complex and "low class lifestyle".   They cannot spare a minute to attend to community activities whilst they and their family go hungry for the day, they cannot diversify and plant trees and wait for it to grow as they need food here and now, cash loans are only used to buy food and necessities.

b)   Preparing information and clarifying priorities

Community consultations were undertaken in order to prepare information, determine strengths and weaknesses and to identify priorities and opportunities. Brainstorming was utilized which provided the process wherein local stakeholders themselves, in a demand-driven, participatory, fast-paced and transparent manner define their own situation, formulate their own vision and goals, define strategic directions and formulate their own action plans.

c) Formulation of objectives, strategies and mobilization of resources

There are 3 main objectives of the project, a) provision of draft animals to resource-poor farming families, b) improve their knowledge and skills in animal management and sustainable farming, and c) rural organizing.  To generate technical and financial support, a proposal was developed with elements largely based on learning of a similar program being successfully implemented in the province of Lanao del Norte.  Local support was mobilized by involving the municipal local government unit in the planning and provision of technical expertise via the agriculture department.  Major fund supporter of the project is the German Doctors for Developing Countries based in Frankfurt, Germany.

d) Problem areas

One problem faced in implementing the project is how to overcome the dole-out mentality of the local inhabitants.  The main reason for the dole-out mentality is that so many projects failed especially in income generating and revolving fund schemes and projects are implemented perfunctorily without social preparation.  The Philippine government has treated project inputs in the past as leverage during elections and as “perfume” to make a government smells good to the public. This was overcome by treating everyone fairly and equally and by following in a strict business manner what has been agreed upon by the farmer and the LEF.

e)  Results achieved

Early during the project the following indicators were set: income, farm production, number of local associations formed and functioning, ability to access additional resources, adoption of sustainable farming technologies and presence of functional farmer’s associations.  Annual monitoring using a simple format was done.  Results showed that:

In terms of incomes, farmers were able to generate incomes from being hired in other farms (average of 1,200 pesos per farmer per month), own savings as a result in no longer hiring animals, offspring generated out of the female animals, animal weight increment, improvement in land valuation as a result of contour farming and the planting of perennial crops.

In terms of environmental enhancement, all farmers, given more free and productive time as labor is greatly reduced, are practicing varying degrees of sustainable farming practices consisting of multiple cropping, contour farming, and the raising of pigs, goats and chickens. Realizing that no two farm and farmer is alike, LEF technicians provides guidance through participatory farm planning and budgeting as to what is the most lucrative combination given a piece of land and the financial capacity and ability of a farmer.

In the arena of decision-making, community-based organizations are being organized which will eventually plan, manage and implement their own activities with minimum intervention.  The local associations have their own set of officers, keeps their financial books and accounts, assist in repayment collection, assist in training new members, conduct their own meetings, determine who will qualify as the next participant and solve internal problems.

Decision-making and the sharing of the fruits of family labor in the home is given importance as the project is family-centered whilst before the usual focus is the male farmer and his welfare.  The gender and development dimension emphasized through trainings and coaching sessions provides a conscious sharing of labor in the home from among the husband, wife and children.

In terms of changing people's attitudes and behavior, the value of self-help mutual-help is slowly being practiced via the community-based organizations and in undertaking group farm work whereas before individualism pervades. The dignity of a person and self-worth has intensified rather than fatalism and inferior attitude. Dole-out mentality has been slowly replaced with the attitude of self-reliance and co-responsibility.

Sustainability

The key to sustainability is what is called as Passing-on-the Gift (POG).  POG is simply done by a farmer returning 3 offspring (if his animal is female) to LEF and LEF providing the animal to next-in-line waiting beneficiaries.  The 3 offspring is equivalent in value to the original mature animal that the farmer has received.  This process will go on and on compounding as the years go by.  Administrative and overhead cost will be taken from interest income and penalties.  The total independence from external sources is computed at just 3 years of project implementation.  This is also the timeline for achieving self-sufficiency as the community-based organizations are able to run the whole set-up on their own since a major component of the project is catalyzing the community associations to be self-propelling by infusing skills in the areas of local governance, financial management, board control, technical and managerial.

In terms of socio-economic and environmental integration, the project is fine-tuned to the socio-economic milieu (i.e. increase in social status with the ownership of an animal, economic independence, no need for fuel and repairs compared to when machines are employed in farming).  Environmental integration is achieved in the promotion and practice of crop diversification and multiple cropping.

Lessons Learned

Three most important lessons learned includes:

·                    Draft animals coupled with the promotion and practice of sustainable farming tremendously increased farmers level of living, break the vicious cycle of poverty and powerlessness and improve the environment.

·                    Community organizing coupled with good economics spelled early sustainability of the project.

·                    Institutional linkages and partnership is necessary as each player assumes unique roles, i.e. Farmers and their associations as subject and object of the initiative, LEF as organizer and facilitator, HPI, German Doctors as enablers.

 Others can learn lessons in terms of the process of pass-on, formation and strengthening of community-based organizations, setting operational eligibility criteria and promotion of sustainable farming technologies.

 Elmer V. Sayre, 42 years old, is originally from Dipolog City but now makes Initao, Misamis Oriental his home base. He provides pro-bono advisory service to the LEF.

 Email:  environs@dialup.msuiit.edu.ph/ elmer2222001@yahoo.com